"Now for our tough battle!"

"The Dragon Race must be putting immense pressure on the Blood Race. Otherwise, our Power wouldn’t be suppressed to this degree."

High above the southern lands of the Adams Empire, five Saint Tier Players gazed solemnly at the sky, where the blood moon hung.

Their expressions were grave, and they were anxiously awaiting ’support from the True Game’.

[Due to an unexpected negative buff in the war instance, the game developers are currently implementing an optimization for this ’BUG.’ Optimization countdown: 36 seconds remaining...]

"Other than the Dragon Race, who else could have pushed this world this far?"

"This level of large-scale suppression, especially one outside the rules that affects even beings at the Demigod Tier and above—I refuse to believe there isn’t a price to pay."

"Regardless, our strength has been weakened by nearly three Tiers. We might even struggle against High Tier members of the Blood Race."

"If the True Game doesn’t implement this ’optimization,’ we can forget about breaking into the Star Realm. It’s obvious that a grueling battle awaits us at the border between the Star Realm and the dense Mana Will Rule Network surrounding this planet’s orbit."

One Saint Tier Player’s gaze was sharp, and it was clear his mind was not at peace.

"’Fortune favors the bold! The mission panel was explicit. If we secure the achievement for breaking into the Star Realm, the top thirty Saints will each receive a Law of Divinity as a reward!’"

"’This is a reward from the system! We won’t need to painstakingly cultivate and condense Divinity on our own. In other words, as long as we obtain this Divinity, we can immediately ascend to the Demigod Tier.’"

"’Once we step into the Demigod Tier, the gates to becoming Deities will be as good as open for us!’"

"’Everyone, the number of Deities in any given world is finite. If we don’t give it our all this time, who knows how many more years we’ll have to wait.’"

"’This time, we have to risk it all, no matter what!’"

The lead Saint Tier Player suddenly spoke, his tone firm and resolute.

Every Player’s situation is different.

For instance, this particular Saint Tier Player’s human body back on Blue Star had already reached the end of its natural lifespan.

Had he not completely merged his physical body from Blue Star with his body in the ’True Game’ world, he would already be dead.

Therefore, everything in the Karte World—everything about the character he was playing—was now all he had.

Moreover, even beings who relied on their own Power to ascend to the Saint Tier had a limited lifespan.

Five thousand years was the limit.

And if one wished to maintain a state of semi-immortality, the only path was to become a ’tentacle and vessel’ for a Deity—in other words, a ’Pseudo-Demigod’.

But doing so would, without a doubt, completely sever any possibility of advancing to the Divine Tier.

It was the equivalent of cutting off one’s own path forward.

Furthermore, their very life and death would be entirely in the hands of that Deity.

Any Player who could reach the Saint Tier was bound to be proud and ambitious.

At least, for now, there were no reports of any Saint Tier or even High Tier Players pledging themselves to a Deity and choosing the path of a Pseudo-Saint or Pseudo-Demigod.

Of course, for Players who have given up on striving, or even Saint Tiers who might eventually lose their will to fight, this kind of thing is bound to happen sooner or later.

But as of now, only about one hundred and fifty years of in-game time had passed. Players still had ample time to strive for a place among the Deities.

So, even if Players were to become vassals to Deities in the Star Empire, that would surely not happen for another three to five thousand years.

For this elderly Player, even though his fused body’s Saint Tier lifespan still had many years left...

he nonetheless felt a great sense of crisis.

After all, the younger Players could never understand what it felt like to have already lived one full life, to have experienced that slow decay from youth into old age.

Thus, one could say that luck was only part of the reason this elderly Player reached the Saint Tier. More importantly, he possessed a spirit that would never admit defeat.

He even felt that dying on the path to the Divine Tier would be better than slowly withering away from old age!

He never wanted to experience that feeling a second time!

Thus, this Saint Tier Player’s mindset could be called exceptionally strong and tenacious.

Hearing the elderly Player’s words, the other four Saint Tiers all nodded firmly in agreement.

It was only natural they had come together; they were on the same page.

After all, birds of a feather flock together.

It’s difficult for people with incompatible personalities and no shared goals to come together.

The moment the five Players nodded, the True Game’s notification sound chimed once more.

[Due to the complexity of the bug, the developers have implemented a preliminary emergency fix for Players in the war instance who have accepted the ’Mission: Cross into the Star Realm.’]

[Please be advised that the current optimization and fix are unstable.]

The moment the notification ended, suddenly, directly overhead...

The great sun, locked in a clash with the blood moon, suddenly flared at its edges, emitting a terrifying ring of golden light!

As the radiance showered down, the entire world seemed to brighten slightly.

However, perhaps because this world was the blood moon’s domain, the brightness was quickly suppressed to a bare minimum.

Yet even at this minimal level, that radiant power, which belonged to a Deity, still instantly restored the strength of the Players who had accepted the ’Mission: Cross into the Star Realm’!

"YES!!!"

"It’s begun!!! Go!!!"

"Don’t look back! Even if we meet resistance, everyone push for the Star Realm without stopping for a second!"

"As long as we get into the Star Realm, as long as the Chief reaches this world’s Star Sea, our mission will be complete!!!"